Posted in Train Up A Child Thursday
"A happy heart makes the face cheerful....." Proverbs 15:13
When I was a child, I had this beautifully illustrated book of nursery rhymes . I loved it very much. A few years ago, my very thoughtful brother found out which book it was from my mom and bought one on Ebay and gave it to one of my girls as a Christmas gift. While reading through the book with them, we came across this short and pointed poem "Here's Sulky Sue. What shall we do? Turn her face to the wall until she comes to!" I had to laugh because that's what we do with our own little sulky sues (and joes...). Kids with attitude get to go stand in the corner until they have a happy heart for the under 6 set) or a good attitude (for the over 6 set). Sometimes a child will wail from the corner "I'm happpppyyyyyy now!" I will hold them up in front of the mirror and say "is that a cheerful face???! Sometimes they are there for quite a long time....
The idea is that obedience with a bad attitude or angry heart is not acceptable. So I try very hard to stop their world and give them time to get their own attitudes straight before allowing them to do whatever it was that they were originally not happy to do. And then I usually give them a second job to test them =) If they come out of the corner and give me attitude again, it's lather, rinse, repeat. Back to the corner!
(thanks to Carla Link for corner time guidance...)
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